Ken Powell wrote:
     >
     > If we could do a survey, I bet we would not find ANY unmodified

Ross

     > boxes  with 500 hrs. at 130 HP average output.  I know that there

is

     > not any way to prove this, so you are right in that only time will
     > tell for sure and we have only heard of a couple of failures - I
     > wonder how many failures Ross knows about?  Ross's system might

work

     > fine in low HP applications, but ...  We do know that Ford

designed

     > the gears to have internal lubrication, which Tracy implemented

and

     > Ross did not implement.  Ford would not have incurred the
     > manufacturing overhead for this if they had not felt that it was
     > required for durability.  We do seem to hear about a lot of boxes
     > that have gone back to Ross for rework - why?  I'm not trying to

be

     > difficult; I do believe that this box has a potential for major
     > problems based on input from the members of this newsletter.
     >
     > Ken Powell

Art Luther wrote:

Has there been anything said about a Ross drive when it is used in a
pusher,
there doesn't seem to be any chance of the thrust bearing that is in the
front
holding up for any length of time, I have one from a fellow over at Merrit
Island, Fl. that he has been using on a 13b on a Cozy. He wanted me to
install
a better thrust bearing. The front seal  came out after 2 hours,
     Art

Several are used in pusher gyro's. Gary Buster, how is your Ross holding
up?

Paul Lamar

Keith Holm wrote:

Hi Paul,  I talked with a Cozy Pilot at AirVenture who has had failures of
two Ross drives in under 200 hrs. the nature of the failure was not
specified, only the disgust!  I believe that Dave Atkins has performed all
the prescribed thrust bearing and oiling mods, and is on his third drive,
at relatively low power levels.  Dave has ordered a Powersport reduction.

Keith Holm [at Power Sport]

Well Keith pardon me for being a bit skeptical but when you guys get
500 hours on one of those things let me know :-) Jim Mederer and I 
talked about mounting the redrive pinion on the end of the e-shaft and
he too was a bit skeptical. It is not as if this has never been tried before
in aircraft engines. Allison did a lot of work on this arrangement
as did Rolls Royce back in the 30's and they were both six power pulses
per rev V12 engines. Rolls wound up using a quill shaft to isolate the
torsional vibrations. You guys need to get a lot more hours before I will
be totally convinced.

Paul Lamar

 
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